There's a lot of water so if it freezes hard for a while there's suddenly a great outdoors to enjoy with canals, lakes, ditches and ponds, often connected. But it's always an 'if' so when it freezes the people feel they have to take the opportunity and there's a skating fever in the country. Sensible people, often over 50, who go out on very thin ice because it might be gone tomorrow and they'll have to wait for years maybe, they've fell through a few times in their life. After the ice has thickened safely, everybody who can skate will skate, most of them never go to a rink allthough that's relatively popular too, but natural ice has a different appeal, people love the sound of the ice (cracking), the low sun's light, the wind and the blush that is said to be unique to skating. It's like track cycling vs recreational cycling, just a few rounds on a small lake in the woods, on a close by canal but also young parents doing a 30 km tour pushing a baby stroller. It's safe because it's crowded, not like the huge lakes with only a few skaters like in Scandinavia or the US where you have to drive to. On top of that there is "11-city tour-fever", it's a traditional 200 km event that needs more than a couple of weeks of hard freezing and can only be finished by the good skaters who are tough and in good shape. It will probably never happen again through global warming, but after a week of very low temperatures everybody gets their hopes up and it's in the headlines everyday. The last one was in '97. It's seasonal madness.

So when the streets freeze up smoothly, they have to take the opportunity too because the canals and lakes might not freeze up at all. It's not as enjoyable as 'real' ice but at least the fanatics didn't miss an opportunity to skate that year. Come to think of it, cycling on ice is much easier than cycling on frozen rain, it's a bit less slippery, the surface is more predictable and there's no canter.